Ray Tanner has made 14 head coaching hires while AD at South Carolina. A closer look

The job of an athletic director goes well beyond hiring coaches, but that does end up being the most public-facing part of the job and perhaps what draws the most scrutiny from the fan base.

Across 12 years as South Carolina’s athletic director, Ray Tanner has hired more than a few coaches.

With his tenure coming to a close soon, the coaches he hired will likely be a big part of his legacy. A former coach himself, he inherited a set of long-timers, made multiple hires each in the high-profile sports of football and baseball, and leaves with a set of recently hired coaches relatively early in their tenures.

A look at Tanner’s hires as AD:

Chad Holbrook, Baseball, 2012

This was Tanner’s first order of business, hiring his replacement at the helm of a dominant baseball program. He promoted his right hand man, but things did not go well. Each of Holbrook’s first three years (2013-15) was less successful than the previous campaign, with the last one missing the tournament. His next squad, in 2016, was excellent, but it fell short of Omaha. The next year, a whole raft of things went sideways and he was out after the season.

Moritz Moritz, Beach Volleyball, 2014

As Tanner oversaw the start of the Gamecocks’ beach volleyball program, he hired its first and, to this point, only coach in Moritz. The former indoor assistant with South Carolina has led his program to a 193-122 record, seven 20-win seasons and two NCAA tournament trips across 11 years.

Will Muschamp, Football, 2015

Tanner’s first football hire came with a fair number of detractors. After the last years of the Spurrier era went stale, the AD chose a coach who had been on a rapid rise until he flamed out at Florida.

For two or three years, Muschamp made the choice look smart, surpassing expectations twice and building a relatively strong team that took some tight losses against a tough schedule in Year 3. But things turned. Poor recruiting at several positions, along with issues finding a quarterback, ended the tenure on a 6-13 run.

Mark Kingston, Baseball, 2017

Tanner’s second baseball hire had an uneven run, with stops and starts that left the program in a stagnant place. Kingston’s first team rallied from a bad start to make a Super Regional, quite a feat for an undermanned team. Then came one of the worst seasons in recent memory, a 28-28 finish in 2019.

Three of his next four teams made the NCAA Tournament, but only one was particularly impressive (a 42-21 team that made the regional round but also finished 4-10 to close the regular season). With little sense that the goal of a College World Series was within reach, Kingston was let go.

Tom Mendoza, Volleyball, 2018

Tanner hired Mendoza to resuscitate a program that had fallen on hard times, with a 16-year streak of missing the postseason and an unexplained midseason coaching change in the middle of 2017.

Mendoza did that part of the job well, leading the team to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and 20 wins in each of his first two years. But three of the past four seasons ended outside the tournament field and the past three saw the Gamecocks finish under .500. The current squad is 7-2 overall.

Shane Beamer, Football, 2020

In some ways, Beamer was a team hire, as evidenced by a board member pushing Tanner to make it on Thanksgiving night over email. Beamer had a limited resume, but his connections at the school were deep and he was well thought of.

To this point, his path has been a bit similar to Muschamp with a surprise bowl in Year 1 and a good-enough Year 2 to earn an extension. Last season was a backslide, and his squad is currently fighting to reach the postseason and avoid challenging conversations around his future at year’s end.

Jeff Poppell, Swimming and Diving, 2021

Another coach who took over for a long-timer (his predecessor coached for 14 seasons), Poppell arrived after a stint with Florida’s women’s team. Through his first three seasons, his men’s team has performed a bit lower than the program’s recent history in the NCAA championships (just one ranked finish), while the women have been top-31 all three years, about in line with the previous coach.

Tony Annan, Men’s Soccer, 2021

Annan was Tanner’s hire after a drawn-out departure for Mark Berson, who coached more than four decades. While Annan was supposed to breathe new life into a program that may have become stagnant, there hasn’t been much traction yet. His best team went 6-9-3, although the current team is 4-0-2 with a tie against Clemson.

Lamont Paris, Basketball, 2022

Frank Martin was hired only a few months before Tanner, and the former Kansas State coach ended up with a 10-year tenure. After an acrimonious finish there, Tanner tabbed Paris out of Chattanooga, following a hiring process that one national pundit called “a disjointed mess.”

So far, the Paris hire has gone well. The first year was rough, but Year 2 featured one of the program’s best teams in the past couple decades and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Tim Hall, Track and Field, 2023

Replacing the legendary Curtis Frye (27 years, more than 25 Olympians), Hall has an extremely short tenure. In one season, his women’s team finished 12th in the NCAA Indoor Championships and 15th outdoors, while the men were 24th and 40th, respectively. Those runs includes a pair of individual titles on the women’s side and a solid set of first-team All-American nods.

Carol Gwin, Equestrian, 2024

Gwin came to Columbia after a decade-long run at SMU that featured a pair of national titles. She replaced Boo Major, who was in Columbia for 25 seasons and retired this spring.

Rob Bradley, Men’s Golf, 2024

Bradly’s tenure is only a few months old. The totality of results are a third-place finish at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate. Bradley was a successful coach for nine years at Purdue before being tabbed for the job.

Ashley Chastain, Softball, 2024

Chastain replaced another fixture in the department, as Beverly Smith was in Columbia for 14 seasons. Chastain has yet to coach a game in garnet and black, but she built up a strong program after five seasons at Charlotte.

Paul Mainieri, Baseball 2024

The former LSU great was a splash hire for Tanner. Mainieri hasn’t actually coached a game yet, so the success of the hire will be written without Tanner at the helm.